Word: functional
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...strategies pharmaceutical firms are using in drug development for genetic disorders vary widely. If the gene defect results in a protein that does not function, says Myriad's Skolnick, "you would try to replace that function by introducing a correct version of the protein into the body. Or you would try to mimic the function of the missing protein with a synthetic compound...
...heart of the effort is whether exercise can slow the effects of aging--and if so, which ones. "It is no secret that exercise is beneficial, but people age differently," says DiPietro. "The question we are asking is whether we can truly separate the decline that is a function of biological aging from the decline that is due simply to disuse...
Recently, positron-emission tomography (PET) scan studies at the UCLA School of Medicine have revealed that either Prozac or cognitive therapy can actually restore normal function in the obsessive-compulsive brain. The scans have documented that ocd patients have abnormal activity in the head of the caudate nucleus, a part of the brain's deep-dwelling basal ganglia, coupled with unusual activity in the orbital prefrontal cortex, just above the eye sockets. The caudate nucleus normally acts as a gatekeeper, determining which thoughts, feelings and behaviors take priority. When it malfunctions, the "worry inputs" generated in the orbital prefrontal region...
...cautions patients not to abandon traditional treatment. Harvard's Eisenberg agrees. "It is conceivable," he says, "that physical manipulation or acupuncture needles or active ingredients in particular remedies are in fact physiologically powerful. But if for certain patients, in certain instances, faith or belief can cause changes in physiological function in a reproducible way, then we have to bring together the best scientists and ask them to figure out why.'' That search is expected to take place over the next decade or so, and once it occurs, the secrets behind alternative medicine could join the panoply of expanding medical knowledge...
...ordinary headache, a migraine results when tightened blood vessels in the brain repeatedly expand, squeeze surrounding nerves and then constrict again, resulting in excruciating pain that often leaves sufferers unable to function for days at a time. Migraines are triggered by a variety of sources, from caffeine to changes in weather to menstrual periods--catalysts, doctors believe, that result in a flood of serotonin that causes blood vessels in the brain to contract. Some of the more than 23 million Americans who suffer from migraines can find relief in a new drug, sumatriptan succinate, which blocks serotonin and prevents vessels...